Description

Pitch 1: Start off by climbing up the southwest corner (kind of the crux with steep, semi awkward holds), traversing right up towards the shallow roofy horizontal break. Pass the shallow roof on its right side, at approximately the middle of the south face. 5.6

There is an option to belay at or just above this horizontal break, but, this pitch can also be extended for another 20m.

P1 (cont) or P2: Climb up the south face and trend slightly left, aiming for a belay platform cut out on the southwest shoulder on the left side of the face. 5.4

P2 (or P3): Climb up, slightly right, on steep but juggy weaknesses, then trend back slighly left to the summit and belay anchor. 5.5

A fun route, fairly easy climbing, and somewhat protected from the wind. Probably shady in the afternoon with some morning sun.

Location

The route is located on the south face of Torre Quarta Bassa.

Hike around on either side of the Torre Grande formation, ending up on the north side. Hiking north past Torre Romana/Torre Barancio/Torre Lusy (these towers to the right), drop down and head on the trail leading to the leaning east side of Torre Quarta Alta and the south side of Torre Quarta Bassa.

The route starts on the left side of the south face, nearest Torre Quarta Alta's east side. Drop around to the slotty west side corridor (between the two towers) and look for an easy line to access the traverse across the wide south face.

Descent: there may be a couple of ways to descend this tower. To the northwest, there should be a couple of rappel anchors, first being 25 meters down. A fun rappel line is also rappelling into the notch between the two towers (to the west) to a rappel anchor (30m?) then rappel through a hole/chimney to the dark ground in the slot between the two towers.

Protection

The route is mostly fixed but a smattering of nuts and small to medium cams may be prudent.

The original description given above is not erroneous, but they may have done one of the more difficult variations to begin the route. The Mauro Bernardi guidebook route actually begins on the Southeast face and angles upwards and left to the triangular ceiling for the first belay. This has become something of a "trade route, " frequently with as many as 5-6 parties either on the rock or queued up in line. I climbed the route earlier today with Mauro, and he started by a large ring bolt anchor, and followed a line of fixed protection to the belay. Pitch 1. 5.5 in it's present "Abgespeckt" condition ("Abgespeckt" = smoothed and somewhat greasy feeling), and was probably easier before all the traffic (5.4?). Follow the fixed pro described above. Pitch 2. Traverse beneath the roof and overcome the overhang easily on great holds; diagonal left towards Torre Quarto Alta, following a line of old pitons to another gain fixed ring belay. Probably only 5.4-5.5 climbing, but exposed enough to be exciting. Pitch 3. Angle back right and upwards to the summit block. More fixed pins and "Abgespeckt" holds. Fun 5.5 climbing.

Expect some loose rock on the way up. there's a couple variations on the 2nd (1st if you combine the 1st two) pitch.

Doing this in 3 pitches rather than 2 is silly. easily done in 2 with a 60m rope. At the top, there's only one way down that I could see. from the top, which is slanted downward, you will find the rap rings approx. 15 feet down.

Angie- The European standard rope length is 50 meters, and belay/rappel stations are normally set to be not more than 25 meters apart. The Euros think a 30 meter pitch is "long." Also consider the overall protection on many routes is sparse by American standards, so shorter leads are the norm...

I just repeated this route on another chilly day in order to complete the Torre Quarta Alta "Nomale" route, and again, found it extremely enjoyable. This climb receives the morning Sun and warms up nicely before any of the other popular routes become climbable.